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Refuseniks

  • Lauded As Modern-day Maccabee, Bush Joins Chanukah Celebration

    At a White House ceremony last week marking the first day of Chanukah, President Bush was compared to the Maccabees for his leadership in acting against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait. “Your actions in the Persian Gulf, opposing wicked aggression and shameless threats of a modern-day Antiochus, is in the true Maccabean spirit,” said Rabbi… More ▸

  • Armand Hammer Dead at 92 on Eve of His Bar Mitzvah

    Only 24 hours before he was to celebrate his long-delayed Bar Mitzvah, oil magnate Armand Hammer died Monday night at his Los Angeles home, following a short illness. He was 92. What was to be a tribute to the billionaire industrialist Tuesday night in Los Angeles turned into a memorial to a man who served… More ▸

  • Soviet Jewry Group Urges Bush to Waive Jackson-vanik Sanctions

    In a major policy change, the National Conference on Soviet Jewry has announced it will ask President Bush to consider a one-year waiver of trade sanctions against the Soviet Union imposed by the Jackson-Vanik Amendment to the U.S. Trade Act of 1974. The National Conference “now believes that the president should consider waiving the provisions… More ▸

  • Bush’s Reappraisal of Jackson-vanik Takes Soviet Jewry Groups by Surprise

    President Bush’s indication that he is considering waiving Jackson-Vanik Amendment trade sanctions against the Soviet Union before it enacts promised legislation reforming emigration policy has caught Soviet Jewry advocacy groups by surprise. The Union of Councils for Soviet Jews announced its opposition to the idea minutes after President Bush mentioned the possibility Friday during a… More ▸

  • Office Opened in Moscow by Ucsj to Monitor Soviet Human Rights

    An office to monitor Soviet emigration and human rights practices has been opened in Moscow, the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews has announced. The Moscow Bureau on Exit, Human Rights and Rule of Law in the USSR was opened Monday as a joint venture of the Union of Councils and the Moscow-based Public Committee… More ▸

  • Gulf Crisis to Dominate Summit, but Soviet Jewry Won’t Be Ignored

    While the Persian Gulf crisis will likely dominate discussions Sunday between President Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, the issue of Soviet Jewry will not be forgotten during the one-day summit meeting in Helsinki, Finland. “We expect our concerns to be raised at some point during their talks,” said Mark Levin, associate executive director of… More ▸

  • Progress Reported in Cases of Longtime Soviet Refuseniks

    Longtime refuseniks whose names have graced the pages of Jewish newspapers and been the subject of State Department talks with Soviet officials are seeing major changes in their lives as glasnost and perestroika continue to alter the face of Soviet Jewry. Irina Voronkevich, a 78-year-old retired biologist refused permission to emigrate since March 1981 because… More ▸